kicked out

So, as I said in my last post, I thought–just yesterday that Harvard was trying to throw me out in the fall of ’82 but just now I realized that my program that generated essays on poetry –for an introductory programming course–took their interest. I worked really, really hard on it and it was quite extraordinary; not as a piece of classy programming but because it showed something about how to put together expert programming tools. I was cursed with equal ability in math and language aptitude. As my high school guidance counselor projected, it made it very difficult to find my way. But I made gravy on that program. Unconsciously I demonstrated some very interesting principles about how to break down language into numbers–algorithms. For instance, counting syllables, detecting rhyme schemes, and thereby, characterizing the style of the poetry (sonnet, Haiku, gosh I a have completely forgotten. But I did write this program). The most difficult and interesting part of it was writing the sentences for the essays. I had parts of sentences into which to insert the individual answers [Please understand that this is hard for me after so many years of “Toxic Brain Syndrome” from so many meds] What worked magic was to use four possible sentence parts at each step. Four, instead of three or five. I just knew that it had to be four. It was painstaking work to write out all those sentence parts that worked together with the answers. I sort of resented it because the section leader had asked me to continue with this project and it was HARD to do.

It was an interesting experiment in using an expert in a field who could also program, to come up with algorithms to use in creating the profressional progam.

As for the importance of using four sentence parts, it defeated human understanding. The essays always sounded like something new.

And, years later, I read that someone was pursuing research into how the ordinary human mind grasps 3 concepts at one time. A gifted person grasps 4. I reassured myself by reasoning that Jesus was part of the Trinity, a 3. The Bible uses 3’s, like, Hope, Faith, and Love.

Now, to take a grave jump here, and please don’t be offended, I noticed that the Aliens moved in fours and fives here, and the other aliens out there may move in bgzillions. But they are all under God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit–the TRINITY– who move in the Grace and Beauty of THREES. to capture a bgzliion out of control in the blink of an eye (to keep it human.)

So, anyway, I was never formally dismissed until half-way through Senior Year when I had already taken a voluntary leave of absence and was at my parents’ home. I got a letter inviting me back after 6 months required leave. I took advantage of that after a minor suicide effort just for a place to go because I had to get out of Summit, NJ such a dull and dreary place for me.